Nishant Moorthy of Fremont was less than a day old when he began turning blue—a potentially fatal condition called cyanosis that can occur if a newborn’s heart is unable to pump oxygen-rich red blood through the body.
| |
|
| |
Nishant Moorthy underwent open-heart surgery at 8 days old, and today remains under the care of Packard cardiologists.
|
Nishant’s doctors immediately transferred him to Packard Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries, a rare congenital defect in which the two large vessels that carry blood from the heart—the aorta and the pulmonary artery—are attached to the wrong ventricles, depriving the child of oxygen.
To correct the problem, Packard surgeons performed an open-heart procedure known as an arterial switch when Nishant was just 8 days old.
“Within 24 hours he was pink and looking healthy again,” says Nishant’s mother, Mala. “Not long after, we were able to bring him home.”
Today, Nishant remains under the care of Packard cardiologists. He is seen regularly by Daniel J. Murphy Jr., MD, associate chief of pediatric cardiology at Packard and professor of pediatrics at Stanford. Now 17, Nishant jogs and plays two musical instruments. He unites his passions for service and technology by volunteering at The Tech Museum in San Jose, and plans to major in computer science when he enters college next year.
“Packard Hospital has given me a second chance at life, and I am grateful for it,” Nishant says. “Fantastic and brilliant doctors like Dr. [Bruce] Reitz, Dr. [Paul] Pitlick, and Dr. Murphy have made sure that everything is okay with me. Had I been treated at a different hospital, I might not be where I am today.”
As director of the Center’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic, Murphy works closely with colleagues at Stanford Hospital to ensure that older patients like Nishant experience a smooth transition to adult medicine.
| |
|
| |
Daniel J. Murphy, MD, works to ensure that Packard patients experience a smooth transition from pediatric to adult medicine.
|
“Adolescence is a difficult time,” Murphy explains. “The continuum of care as they transfer from Packard to Stanford is meant to be seamless and tailored to individual patients and their family.”
About 15 percent of patients at the Children’s Heart Center are young adults, like Nishant, who face major lifestyle changes. The Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic offers them guidance on how to manage their care independently, Murphy says.
“Being a ‘miracle child’ or growing up with a chronic medical problem is challenging,” he says. “A substantial number of our patients have psychological and social needs that are very difficult to address.”
Raising a family is a particular challenge for many young adult patients, he says. Recently, the Clinic developed an innovative counseling program at Stanford Hospital for at-risk women who want children.
“We identify every woman with a heart defect who comes to Stanford with a pregnancy or plans to become pregnant,” Murphy says. “She is assessed by the appropriate doctors, who develop a plan for managing her pregnancy, labor, and delivery. We’ve had some immensely high-risk pregnancies that have done very well. It’s a model program that others around the country are now replicating.”
Some congenital heart disease patients develop serious medical complications as they age, Murphy says. Yet few adult cardiologists and cardiac surgeons are trained to treat people with inborn heart defects. Instead, the vast majority of adult specialists take care of patients with acquired heart disease, such as atherosclerosis.
This lack of training and experience can be frustrating for the specialist and for the up to 1.3 million adult Americans who live with congenital heart disease. To bridge the gulf between pediatric and adult medicine, Packard and Stanford Hospitals are developing a new program to train subspecialists in adult congenital heart disease.
“I’d like to see the majority of our young adults receive their care at Stanford,” Murphy says. “After all, these are our lifelong patients.”